1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a high-speed inkjet recording device that reuses refresh ink.
2. Related Art
Line-scan inkjet printers are a type of high-speed inkjet printer capable of printing on a continuous recording sheet at high speeds, and include an elongated inkjet recording head formed with rows of nozzles for ejecting ink droplets. The head is arranged in confrontation with the surface of the recording sheet across the entire width of the recording sheet. The head selectively ejects ink droplets from the nozzles based on a recording signal and impinges the droplets on desired positions across the width of the recording sheet. At the same time, the recording sheet is transported rapidly in its lengthwise direction, which serves as a main scanning operation, so that images can be recorded at any place on the recording sheet.
Various types of line-scan inkjet printers have been proposed, such as printers that use a continuous inkjet type recording head and printers that use a drop-on-demand type recording head. Although drop-on-demand type line-scan inkjet printers have a slower printing speed than do continuous inkjet type line-scan inkjet printers, they have an extremely simple ink system and so are well suited for a general-purpose high-speed printer.
Because the drop-on-demand inkjet recording device ejects ink droplets only when needed, non-ink-ejection periods occur during printing operations. During such non-ink-ejection periods, the ink clinging around nozzles may get dense. Condensed ink prevents proper ink ejection, and in a worse case blocks off the nozzles, thereby disabling ink ejection.
Although such a problem does not occur in the continuous-type inkjet recording device, this is a serious problem in the drop-on-demand type inkjet recording device.
Japanese Patent-Application Publication (Kokai) No. HEI-11-334103 discloses an inkjet recording device that reuses ink, which was removed and collected from an ink ejection surface of an inkjet head.
However, when collecting ink from the ink ejection surface of the inkjet head, impurities, such as dust, are also collected along with the ink. Reusing ink containing such impurities easily causes nozzle blockage, degrading reliability of ink ejection.
In the view of foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to overcome the above problems, and also to provide an inkjet recording device capable of ejecting refresh ink during printing operations and reusing the refresh ink by collecting the same.
In order to attain the above and other objects, the present invention provides an inkjet recording device including an inkjet member that ejects an ink droplet, an ink tank that stores ink, wherein the ink is supplied to the inkjet member, an ink receiving member that receives the ink droplet, a deflecting means for deflecting the ink droplet so as to impinging the ink droplet on the ink receiving member, and a collecting means for collecting ink from the ink receiving member and supplying the collected ink to the ink tank.